How to Anticipate Customer Complaints

 

For customers who are lodging complaints with you, this may very well be the moment in time that determines if you will keep or lose that customer. Being able to address concerns quickly, preoperationally and with retention in mind is critical. In order to anticipate your customer’s needs you will need to consider the supply chain you are using. This knowledge will go a long way to anticipating your customer challenges and possibly avoiding the complaint in the first place. Although we strive for excellence no one is perfect, so preparation is key.

Prompt and Complete Problem Resolution
Leads to Loyal Customers

 

As orders increase and things get chaotic as you service your growing customer needs, you may be tempted to put off dealing with customer complaints. Or, you may feel compelled to take shortcuts in handling them so that you can attend to other tasks. Either way, you will likely find yourself wishing you had done a better job of addressing issues as you see once-loyal customers taking their business elsewhere, or even worse, voicing their anger and disappointment on social media.

 

Use the tips below to turn customer complaints into opportunities to impress.

 

⇨  Staff up before the onslaught,  If you've been in business more than 4 years, you know what to expect for peak selling points.  Bring on temporary staff (or permanent staff if you plan to grown next year) in advance of the rush.  Better to have more compliant-resolution bandwidth than you need, than not to have enough.

⇨  Take every complaint seriously. The quickest way to alienate a customer is to make them feel like their problem is not important. From major issues to minor scuffs, every complaint should be treated like a showstopper

⇨  Take action immediately. Even if completely resolving an issue will take time, you should make contact with the customer as soon as possible so they know you have received their complaint and understand their concerns.

⇨  Expedite the shipping of replacement items. You should assume that every item about which you receive a complete is intended to meet a deadline, and you should take steps to ensure it arrives in the shortest time possible.

⇨  Get the necessary information for insurance claims. If an insurance claim will be filed, be sure to record all the details of the incident so you have what you need to get reimbursed.

⇨  Follow up with a survey and coupon. Show your customers that you want to learn from the issue by asking them to complete a survey. And, apologize for the inconvenience by sending them a coupon. The small cost of that gesture can pay off many times over in future purchases.

  

How to Prevent Complaints in the First Place

It costs much less — both in time and money — to prevent problems than to deal with them after they occur. Theft and product damage during shipping are two of the most common issues, and both can be minimized by using packaging best practices.

 

“It costs much less — both in time and money — to prevent problems than to deal with them after they occur.” TWEET THIS

 

This includes packaging the products well, with proper padding. Your operation needs to be well equipped with a complete range of void fill solutions from bubble cushioning to air pillows, from foam padding to padded mailers and if you need alternatives that deliver a more sustainable message, paper solutions should be the lead void fill in your packing station. Shipping them in strong, lightweight corrugated cartons sealed with water-activated tape (WAT). WAT creates a tamper-evident seal that deters theft. Plus, the physical bond produced between the tape and the carton surface holds tight in virtually all environmental conditions so packages don’t come open and spill their contents in transit.

 

Preparation is the Key to Success

 

The e-commerce world is taking an ever-growing share of the traditional retail market. Are you ready to grow? Are your packing stations set up in a way that is both efficient and safe? Do you have all the shipping materials you need, including void fill in easy to use high speed delivery systems, water-activated tape and water activated tape dispensers? If you have questions about our products, please contact us to learn more.

 

6 Ways to Improve Your Shipping Strategy

There are steps you can take to evaluate and enhance your shipping practices

The explosive growth of e-commerce in recent years is a double-edged sword. While it has created tremendous opportunity for retailers, that opportunity has likely enticed many competitors into the market. Consequently, shipping merchandise effectively and efficiently is more important than ever.

With customers increasingly vocal about their purchase experience, if at any point complaints start to rise or your shipping ROI starts to fall, it’s time to reassess your shipping strategy.

“When complaints rise or shipping ROI falls, it’s time to reassess your shipping strategy.” TWEET THIS

6 Ways to Improve Your Shipping Strategy

As everyone responsible for e-commerce business knows, shipping costs play a major role in determining a company’s profitability. If you aren’t getting merchandise to customers on time and undamaged, your financial results will suffer. Every hour spent on inefficient processes or responding to customer complaints about lost or damaged shipments cuts into your bottom line.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to evaluate and enhance your shipping practices. To ensure your shipping processes are optimized and your shipping team is contributing to the company’s overall success, do the following:

1. Determine your goals and whether you are meeting them. How long should it take to properly pack merchandise? How many times should a box be touched as it moves through your shipping area? How many units should go out the door each day? It’s important to have well-defined goals and to continually assess your efforts in relation to them. Also, if your goals aren’t currently documented, take the time to write them down, discuss them with your team, and post them prominently in your shipping area.
2. Review your shipping processes. Your standards for how merchandise is wrapped, padded, and secured within a carton have a significant impact both on how long it takes to prepare a package for shipping and the in-transit damage rate. Be sure you are doing all you can to minimize packing time while maximizing the protection of your merchandise.
3. Assess your packaging materials. Are you using strong, lightweight corrugated cardboard cartons? Are you sealing your cartons with water-activated tape (WAT)? Your shipping team needs the right materials to do their job properly.
4. Evaluate your shipping company. You should be looking at things like whether your contract should be renegotiated, whether the company’s errors are the cause of an unacceptably high number of customer complaints, and whether using one shipper or multiple shippers is to your advantage.
5. Review your free shipping policy. Many e-commerce companies today offer free shipping, but it’s costly. If yours does, are you sure it’s a good strategy? Take another look at your books, your competition, and your customers to determine the right tactic going forward. It may be that a free shipping policy is crucial but that you can offset the expense in other ways. 
6. Inspect your packing station. Taking the approach that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” may mean you are missing out on opportunities to improve the way you prepare cartons for shipping, and that can mean you are losing money on every package shipped!

Do Your Shipping Practices Position Your Company to Capitalize on Growth?

Forbes quotes Euromonitor International in saying that e-commerce is on pace to be the world’s largest retail channel by 2021, accounting for 14 percent of retail sales by that time. If your company offers quality merchandise backed by effective shipping practices and support, you are well-positioned to capitalize on this growth. But the time to evaluate and optimize your processes is now so that you stay ahead of the curve. Companies that choose not to act on their product fulfillment issues until “crunch time” will likely pay a hefty price, both financially and in terms of customer loyalty.

If you have questions about how our water-activated tape and water-activated tape dispensers can play a role in your successful shipping operations, please contact us at your convenience.

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[This post republished from the Better Packages Blog]